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Masks: Some hospitals ask patients, visitors to remove N95s, citing CDC
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Late last year, Laura Wing-Kamoosi visited her 79-year-old father at the hospital in northern Michigan. To her surprise, a worker asked her to remove her N95 and replace it with a surgical mask. She declined, layering the surgical mask atop her N95 instead.
She saw no staff wear N95s, among the best respiratory protection available, while they treated her father for a tear in his aorta and other medical issues, she told POLITICO. One doctor wore his surgical mask under his nose, she said. Her father, who was hospitalized for about a month, contracted Covid-19 during his stay, and while he survived, the virus slowed his recovery.
The hospital, Munson Healthcare, said it requests visitors wear the surgical masks it provides to ensure people are using quality masks and that it allows visitors to layer one over their own. The hospital is following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and for many public health advocates, that’s exactly the problem.
They fear that surgical masks put the most vulnerable people at higher risk of catching Covid-19. N95s, which seal tighter to the face, offer better protection against the airborne virus, studies show. For more than a year, many have called on the Biden administration to change its guidance to offer more protection inside hospitals, even as mitigation measures have been dialed back and case counts decline.
And yet, patients across the country say they are often told to replace their N95s with surgical masks as they enter hospitals. One woman said she was told her mask could be carrying Covid on its surface. A Chicago facility, Northwestern Medicine, said it asks visitors to replace or cover their masks with a surgical mask provided by the hospital for quality control. And inside many hospitals, doctors and nurses often don surgical masks when treating patients, all in line with CDC recommendations.
“It’s baffling,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist who has advised the Biden administration on its pandemic response. “This is something where the CDC has been on the wrong side for a long time.” ...
ALSO SEE: To mask or not to mask? That is the question after CDC eases mask guidelines for fatigued nation
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